 |
|
 |
 |
Orbital Sculptures [ Next ] There is a controversial category of space art which has the potential to touch almost everyone on the planet - and because of its controversy, to stimulate a global discussion of: "Why should humanity explore and develop space?" This type of space art is referred to by Roger Malina's third category: Art in space that is viewed from Earth - typically these are large reflecting sculptures in Earth orbit or artificially induced aurora which could be potentially visible to much of the world's population. Their scale, cost and controversy would be a subject of discussion worldwide. Though often proposed, it is significant that after more than 45 years of space activities, no such mega art-in-space projects have ever been concluded - especially as these would be powerful tools of communication.
While there has been a variety of technologies suggested for orbital art works, most of the proposals have utilized some form of inflatable space technology. The idea of using inflatable structures goes back to the first Echo satellites launched by the US in the 60's - although a number of inflatable concepts for space applications pre-dated these satellites. These were passive communication satellites and carried no other payload. However, they were significant because, in addition to their scientific objectives, many people actually saw these quite visible objects passing overhead in the night sky. Echo-1A launched on August 12, 1960 was a sphere with a diameter of 30.5 m made out of metallic coated plastic film called Mylar which was 0.0127 mm thick and gave a total mass of 76 kg.
Echo-2 launched in 1964 incorporated improvements in satellite surface fabrication and overall shape, and featured a larger diameter of 41 m and had a total mass of 256 kg. Echo-1A and Echo-2 continued in orbit until 1968 and 1969, respectively. Reflected light from the Echo satellites, essentially spherical "mirrors" in orbit, was extremely bright and could be observed from a wide range of points on Earth due to relatively high orbital altitude of 1,000-2,000 km. As a result, Echo-1 and -2 became well-known among sky-gazers as representative artificial satellites of the 1960's. The first art-in-space concepts called spaceworks were proposed by Albert Notarbartolo in 1975. While he recognized the controversial nature of such concepts, he hoped that support for the launching of the first spacework would be obtained as a cooperative international venture under the auspices of the United Nations to symbolize the solidarity of mankind. Since then, the few art-in-space proposals that have been publicized and developed to some degree have indeed sparked enormous controversy and debate which is perhaps a signal of their communications potential. Most of these have also had a high symbolic content. Some proposals have been either technically unrealistic and/or financially non-feasible. The proposed orbital artworks that have technically developed to some degree are: 1982. Joe Davis proposed Ruby Falls - an electronically induced artificial aurora. Indefinitely postponed after the Challenger mishap. (Malina. 1989) 1982. Richard Clar proposed Spaceflight Dolphin - a 2m in length wire frame sculpture in the shape of a dolphin. The sculpture was designed to be deployed from a GAS (Get Away Special) canister during a Space Shuttle flight. Though not visible to viewers on Earth, a radio transmitter would send dolphin sounds back to museums on Earth. Clar's project was complicated by NASA's upgrading the deployable GAS projects to their more expensive Hitchhiker program. (Clar 1993). 1984. Pierre Comte: Arsat - a solar sail type sculpture designed to create a brilliant star that would circle the planet. The sculpture was selected as the runner-up in the Eiffel Tower competition. Comte has proposed several size variations of Arsat.
1986. Arthur Woods: (OURS Foundation) OURS - the Orbiting Unification Ring Satellite project - designed to celebrate the new millennium, this one kilometer in diameter inflatable toroidal sculpture would be visible as a circle in the sky approximately one- quarter the size of the Moon. The sculpture employed a chemically impregnated membrane that would harden or rigidize in the presence of sunlight. The sculpture, as defined in 1988, would weigh 19.7 tons and would require an Ariane 5 or Titan 4 to launch.
1986. Group Spirale (Alain Coquet, Jerome Gerber, Jean Jacques Leonard, Alain Robert, Jean Pierre Pommereau): L'anneau Lumiere - a 24 kilometer in diameter ring of 100 six meter in diameter reflecting balloons would have been visible as a circle in the sky larger than the Moon. The winning project to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower stimulated the most protest from the astronomical community and was eventually considered technically non-feasible has the sculpture concept did not have the necessary structural integrity.
1988. Arthur Woods: (OURS Foundation) OUR-Space Peace Sculpture - a six meter in diameter prototype of the OURS 2000 was proposed for the International Space Year (ISY). A full size test model was constructed by NPO Energia in 1990 and a "Letter of Intent" for the launch was signed with Glavcosmos, but in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, funding did not materialize in time for the ISY. Visible as a small light for an observer on Earth, the deployment from the Mir station was to be filmed by cosmonauts during a space walk and transmitted live to Earth. (Woods and Bernasconi. 1989). 1988. James Pridgeon proposed the 1990 Goodwill Games Constellation - an orbital sculpture consisting of two inflatable Mylarized balloons 30m in diameter attached to a Kevlar tether several kilometers in length. This structure would create two stars symbolizing East and West, with a brightness equivalent to that of Venus. Pridgeon discussed the project with both the U.S. and the Russian space officials. In 1983, Pridgeon submitted a proposal to NASA for art to be included on the space station. (Pridgeon, 1990) In 1995, to call attention to the problem of orbital debris, American artist Richard Clar created Collision which he calls: an orbital debris constellation sculpture in low-Earth orbit. Working in collaboration with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, 297 orbital debris objects from all space faring nations were selected from the U.S. Space Command/NASA's Satellite Catalog. Using a massively paralleled super computer, a simulation was made of the orbiting constellation sculpture as viewed from geosynchronous orbit. Composer Mark Mantel created a musical composition for a video of the simulation using the same data that describes the orbits of each piece of orbital debris comprising the Collision sculpture. (Clar 1995)
Click to continue: |
One reason for this situation can be found in
the space community itself, especially among the astronomers who,
when these type of artworks were first proposed,
loudly
protested that such projects as interference in their work. Some
space scientists referred to such artworks to be nothing more than
space
debris. These comments were picked by the media and, in order to
avoid controversy, space agencies in the US and Europe have been
reluctant to endorse such space art projects. However the main
factor limiting their realization is
the high cost of realizing such art projects which would cost many
millions of dollars to realize. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
